Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-07-30
NEW MEXICO.
To the Editor Of the Eagle.

| we lett SANTA re IOT EspduOld y uuc 81
a town on the Rio Grande, about 30 mile
from Santa Fe. The whole country TO
miles in all direct, Is from the city
dry and barren No grass, no trees ant
no water. The goats eat the grass and tn
Me xicans have been cutting off the tree
for the last three hundred years for fir
wood. But after about 90 miles tram
things change for the better, and We fine
Me xicaps and Pueblo Indians farming, al
though it is on the Mexican style. l thinl
the Pueblo's are the best workers W.
saw one at work blowing. and all thu
clothing he had on was what the boys on
here call G string; but when they 60 tt
Santa Fe they have to put on full set, a:
they will not allow them there In their ole
style.
We saw the old towns of Santa Cruz
Santa Clara, San Juan, Santa Philip
Chamita and Espanola. They had great
many saints in old times to name towns
after, but now days the name of sinner is
sometimes used. All these towns are Mexi
can towns, with adobe houses, ovens
and walls, and every town has
church is built in the form of a Cross The
churches haye very few windows, very
small and high, no seats or floors, q mean
the Mexicsn adobe] and when services
commence each one fall on their knees and
remain to the end of the services in that po-
sition. think if that plan was adopted
In all churches 1t would make quite diff
serence in membership. Espanola is on
the Rio Graude, muddy rapid river, the
Denver & Rio Grande railroad has q sta
ton there, there are five or six white men
living in the town, and about fifty Mexi-
cans Santa Clara is an old town, purely
Mexican. We went up the Santa Clara
valley and canon The valley is about one
and one half miles wide at the mouth. 1t
ran up about ten miles, gradually rising
and narrowing. The mountains on each
side are rather destitute of trees, but as we
go up the valley the vegetables of all kinds
change and from few scrubby cedars to
plenty of pine and from the cactus, some
growing eight feet high, and sedge brush,
to a fine coat of green grass growing well
up to the mountain tops, here we find two
mountains the sides nearly perpendicular
and nothing but bare rocks instead of trees
and grass on their sides. The bases of
these mountains are not more than $50
yards apart, and here begins the canon
with the Santa Clara river through
1t. we travelled up two days more
and csmped for few days, and found
trout in abundance and mountain trout
sure, for Espanola is $500 feet high and
we have been going up ever since we left
there, then the water is cold-no use for
ice After fishing until we were tired of it
we went down the valley again and saw
the cliff jewellers on our way. We got
back to Espanola in the forenoon and re-
plenished our grub box and started up the
Rio Grande to the mouth of the Chama
river, then followed that river up to Abb
quise (Ah be cue), twenty five miles. This
town is a very old town and for long time
was the outpost of civilization. 1t is pure
ly Mexican, with only two white men in it
and about one hundred Mexicans They
have large church of the usual STYLE
A few miles above, on Canericus creek, is
a settlement of Penitentes; they seem to be
an order by themselves. They had a pile
of large wooden crosses about sixteen feet
long that they carry on holy week and
good Fridays. They had ceremony the
week before we were there. The services
in the church are secret, but when they
came out a certain number were stripped
to the waist and as they passed out a man
stationed at the door for that purpose would
cash each one on the back with sharp
stone and make the blood run freely, they
would then 60 into the
yard and whip themselves
We kept up the river about twelve miles
farther and came to an old man by the
name of johnson at work mining for gold.
He told us to 60 up to his house and stop
which we did. The country is rather a
bard place, being in the midst of the vol
canic region and everything seems to be
crumbling away. We found some fine
specimens of agate there that are too hard
to crumble. After staying there a few
days we packed up and crossed the Chama
river and started for TERRA Armarilla
The trail was very good but the water was
very muddy owing to late rains. The
name TERRA Armarilla means yellow earth,
and it is rightly named, for the soil In
every direction is yellow. On the top of
the highest mountain we crossed we found
a large wooden cross erected The in
scription on the cross said that a Mexican
was buried there June 9th, 1882, and re-
quested the prayers of all for the repose of
his soul. made up my mind that it was
a grand place for burial After crossing
the divide we found better country than
We had been travelling in far long time,
There is fine timber, good grass a d good
water in abundance
but there was no signs of farming or any
life or energy to be seen as it was on the
Pecos or Rio Grande rivers But upon in
-ncfs tive 10 Il IL